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Forums - Discs & Movies - What is anamorphic?

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It depends on how they do the subtitles Gabe. I've seen a few non-anamorphic letterboxed movies where all subtitles are contained within the letterbox frame. This irritates me about watching letterbox movies on TCM, IFC, Sundance, etc., as well because if you stretch it to fill the screen, you lose the subtitles.

My Sony overscans too. When I review I have to check the frame size on my screen caps (usually you can trust the box art, but not always). The worst thing about non-anamorphic transfers on a widescreen TV, beyond the fact that you lose detail, is that film's with subtitles can't be viewed in zoomed mode. It's a b***h to have a nice wide TV and only be able to use about 1/5 of it because you need to read th subtitles.

Adrian wrote: Aaah, you are right Chris, but don't all HD TV's overscan?

Typically in my experience the worst offenders are CRT's and old fashioned projection tv's, like the ones that are now less then $1000. If you have any thing digital like DLP or LCD, a good display will show you the whole darn image. The method of connection also contributes to what you get to see, with a digital connection like DVI or HDMI producing the most accurate results.

Don't own an HD set myself, but from what I've seen most of them are LCD/plasma or the like. The generally have much better geometry than CRT so you don't 'lose' any information. It's not a whole lot in any event, but I often notice it because I take a lot of screen caps for the site.

Technically you're wrong Adrian. You don't ‘lose’ any information watching on a 16:9 display, as the image is letterboxed within that area not chopped off. The reason it might look like you are losing pictorial information is that most people watch on CRT sets that have overscan. This usually cuts off some of the picture to the sides (it varies from very little to a lot).

If you watch a 1.85:1 movie on an LCD PC monitor (for example) you'll always have the black bars, because they don't overscan.

Adrian wrote: Actually Jonny, that's not true. You actually lose a bit of the image watching a 1.85:1 movie on a 1.78:1 display. There aren't any letterbox bars or at least there should not be. You lose about 6% of the image.

Actually Jonny, that's not true. You actually lose a bit of the image watching a 1.85:1 movie on a 1.78:1 display. There aren't any letterbox bars or at least there should not be. You lose about 6% of the image.

Thanks Aaron. I did mean what type delivers best sound. At the moment I have a pretty standard DVD player which I also channel through my stereo so I guess it doesn't really make a great deal of difference but I am looking at upgrading my equipment so that is why I am interested.

Will make sure to listen to the experts from the 'Worlds no 1 home entertainment magazine in future'!

In all honesty I found non anomorphic widescreen dvds not as bad as they're making it out to be.

To get the right acoustics, you've got to have a large room, for your speakers to work at there best, otherwise it will just sound boomy and congested,

To make your sound bigger you will need to mount your surround sound speakers high up and tilt them towards your listening position, also place you center speaker and the same height as the left and right for the same punch and clarity, placing your speakers behind you sofa will result in an unbalanced sound, so you would need to set a delay from your set up menu to create that balanced soundfield.

Home cinema relies on a convincing three dimentional soundfield, so it's pointless having a top of the range home cinema system if you don't alow your system to breathe, so it's all about right cabling, purchasing a test tone meter, configuring your speakers, maximising the sound from your subwoofer.

(I didn't get all that info from the worlds No. 1 home entertainment magazine- honest)

Chris, I think he means which delivers better sound: Dolby Digital or DTS. James, if you have a sound system that has DTS audio you might want to playback your discs with that sound option since most of the time the DTS has a slight edge over the Dolby sound tracks. However, there are other factors to consider such as the quality of your equipment and acoustics. Unless you have a premium sound system in your home, most ears will find little difference between DTS and Dolby.

I began to type a long description for you. However, the following website has the simplest explanation and is very graphic: http://www.dvdweb.co.uk/information/anamorphic.... . Most if not all television monitors will be widescreen in the future. Anamorphic, or "enhanced for 16 x 9" is crucial to enjoy the best quality image for films originally shot in widescreen on your set. Many websites that offer reviews of DVDs indicate whether the transfer is anamorphic or enhanced for 16 x 9.

OK. OK. I realise that I am gonna sound stupid but I hope that some of you can explain a few terms for me. I am a big film fan and buy loads of DVDs but dont really have the best equipment so am unaware of some of the terms and benefits they hold.